Darren Ferguson may have to sacrifice style for substance at Preston

All eyes will be on David Nugent tomorrow, but defeat for Preston could leave Ferguson with much to contemplate

Darren Ferguson has always believed in playing attractive football, but he may have to sacrifice this ethos if the club is to stay up. Photograph: Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto Richard Sellers-Sportsphoto/RICHARD SELLERS/SPORTSPHOTO

The Preston North End manager, Darren Ferguson, may be grateful for the return of David Nugent to Deepdale with Portsmouth tomorrow afternoon. Not because the striker is now a shadow of the player who scored 37 goals in under 100 appearances for North End, but because while the attention is on the once feted Preston striker, it will at least not be on him.

Beaten 2-0 at home by Doncaster in their Championship opener and then thumped 4-0 by Swansea, Ferguson's side is rooted to the bottom of the table. The financial strife the club found itself in during the summer led the new chairman Maurice Lindsay to admit that Preston came perilously close to going under. This was always going to be a challenging season for Ferguson.

It is still very early days, but if Preston slip to their third straight defeat Ferguson, who has always believed in playing attractive football in the style made so successful by his dad, may have to think long and hard about sacrificing his beliefs in favour of knuckling down for a fight for survival.

He'll have the popular defender Sean St Ledger back in his squad for the visit of Portsmouth tomorrow – whose ongoing financial turmoil makes Preston's seem positively provincial in comparison – which is just as well. Making his side hard to beat over the coming months may be his best hope of preserving Championship status.

With Lindsay vowing to cut the wage bill further from £10m in the summer to £6.5m other squad members could follow big earners such as Neil Mellor and Darren Carter, who left for Sheffield Wednesday and Millwall respectively, out of Deepdale.

There will likely be cheers from the home fans for Nugent, providing he doesn't score. But if Preston roll over for Pompey, who have a point gained in a 1-1 draw with Reading to show from their opening two games, they could very quickly turn to jeers, and all eyes will be upon Ferguson.